WEST WARWICK -- Eight-year-old Justin DeMaio tries hard to keep his world in order.
Pajamas in his top left dresser drawer. Trading cards in a box under his bunk bed. Homework in a notebook printed so neatly the words seem to hug each line on the page.
It has been four months since his mother, Dina DeMaio, a legal secretary at Textron Financial Corp., in Providence, and a part-time waitress at The Station, was killed in the nightclub fire. And so much of Justin's life has changed. Now, it is about to change again.
Today, a West Warwick Probate Court judge could decide which of Justin's family members will be responsible for taking care of him.
Three of Justin's relatives -- his maternal grandmother in West Warwick, a cousin of the boy's mother in Maine and a Florida man who says he is the boy's father -- have all retained lawyers to make their cases about what they believe is best for Justin.
Justin is one of 56 children who lost at least one parent when the nightclub on Cowesett Avenue burned to the ground on Feb. 20. How many other children are involved in custody disputes is not known.
For Justin, as for so many children of fractured families, there are no simple solutions.
At a hearing in West Warwick Probate Court last month, Judge Robert Rainville granted temporary guardianship to the boy's maternal grandmother, Patricia Belanger.
Justin had been living with his mother at Belanger's house for about a year before the fire. Rainville said at the hearing he wanted Justin to be able to finish second grade at his West Warwick elementary school.
No matter who is granted permanent guardianship, one thing is certain: Justin's world is about to be reordered.
JUSTIN STEPPED
into his grandmother's basement apartment one afternoon last week and Lulu Bell jumped up to greet him. The miniature Doberman pinscher was a gift from his grandmother a few weeks after his mother's funeral.
Justin, dressed in baggy jeans and a Dr. Seuss T-shirt, dropped his knapsack on the kitchen floor and let Lulu lick his face.
Justin has his father's mocha skin; his mother's doe eyes. He is wiry and spring-loaded, leaping from room to room.
In the living room, he horsed around with his 18-month-old cousin. The toddler's mother is Belanger's youngest daughter, Kristy Garvey. Garvey has been staying with Belanger to help out since Dina died.
A polished wood cabinet has become a memorial: Framed photographs; a poem; a heart-shaped card that reads "I Love You Mom" and an urn with eye glasses propped on its top.
On the wall are framed photographs of Justin. Justin the baby. Justin the toddler. Justin the schoolboy.
Justin shares his bedroom with Spunky the hamster and Freddie the goldfish. Sports trophies are lined up on a shelf; favorite video games stacked on another.
A framed collage of photographs of Justin's mother designed by a cousin hangs on the wall. "There's me! There's me! There's me! And -- there's me!" Justin tells a visitor, pointing at the pictures.
But his attention quickly turned back to his fish. "You want me to feed Freddie, Grandma?" Justin said, leaping up again.
Before Justin's mother died, Belanger said when her grandson was out of earshot, he used to share the bedroom with his mother. "After the funeral, he wouldn't go in it, so I cleared everything out," Belanger said.
A new bunk bed arrived. So did a sign for the door that said "Justin's Parking Only." Now, Justin plays in the bedroom, Belanger said, but he sleeps in her room.
That, too, is about to change.
A copy of a will signed by Justin's mother, Dina DeMaio, seven months before her death, grants legal guardianship to Dina's cousin, Steven Beardsworth, of Norway, Maine.
Beardsworth, 33, is an unemployed welder who lives with his wife, Adele, a nurse, and their 12-year-old son. Beardsworth is restoring the family's house after a fire, said his lawyer, John C. Revens Jr., a state senator from Warwick.
Perry Snead Jr., the Florida man who says he is Justin Perry DeMaio's father, also is expected to make some type of custody claim at today's hearing regarding Justin, according to Anthony DiPetrillo, a lawyer who said he represents Snead.
But Snead will likely have to first establish paternity rights, since he is not named on Justin's birth certificate, said Belanger's lawyer, John M. Harpootian.
Snead, 32, was arrested on Jan. 4 and charged with dealing in stolen property. He was sentenced to nine months at the John E. Goode Pretrial Detention Facility in Jacksonville, Fla., according to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. Snead is currently in the Community Corrections Division's substance abuse treatment program, a spokeswoman for the division said, and is scheduled to be released on Aug. 8.
Closer to home are Snead's parents -- Justin's paternal grandparents -- Marsha and Perry Snead Sr. A woman who answered the phone at Marsha Snead's Warwick home identified herself as Snead's 26-year-old daughter, Kelly, and said her father doesn't live with them, but declined to elaborate. Marsha Snead referred all questions to lawyer Anthony DiPetrillo.
"I can't divulge anything yet," DiPetrillo told a reporter, adding that he represents only Justin's father, Perry Snead Jr.
Meanwhile, Patricia Belanger, who has been caring for Justin since his mother died, has her own ideas about what is best for Justin.
Belanger, a 51-year-old, twice-divorced poker dealer at Foxwoods Resort Casino, had been preparing to fight to keep Justin herself.
Only now, Belanger said, she has decided to "bow out" of the custody fight. "I work holidays. I work weekends," Belanger said. "What kind of life is he gonna have?"
Belanger said she has been under a lot of strain. She says she is taking medication.
Belanger, listed in her daughter, Dina's, will as executor, says she has asked a social worker to write a letter explaining why Justin would be better off living with his paternal grandparents, the Sneads. "Blood is blood, no matter what," Belanger said.
Justin, who turned 8 in April, is old enough to know that the grownups are arguing over him, but does he understand why?
One afternoon in his grandmother's apartment, Justin glanced up at a calendar on the kitchen wall where black X's mark off the days until a judge is to decide his future.
This ordering of time is clearly the work of a grownup. Justin is too small to reach.
Donations are being accepted by Textron to assist Justin. To donate, make a check payable to the Dina and Justin DeMaio Trust, c/0 Textron Financial Corp., Human Resources Dept., 40 Westminster St., Providence, RI 02903. To date, a Textron spokeswoman said, the company has raised about $70,000 for the trust fund.
